Facilities

This page lists details of the equipment available within the labs of CAPPA. We also have varying degrees of access to other equipment in CIT and the Tyndall Institute, both through existing collaborations with other groups, and through the National Access Programme (NAP). In addition, we can also access equipment at many of the other Irish institutes, through a Shared Access programme. The centre’s scientific research activities are primarily distributed among three laboratories, listed below. An additional two labs are mostly dedicated to industry-related activities (see the Research for Industry page in the Industry section). For details on the experimental techniques used, please see the Techniques page, and for descriptions of the research undertaken in CAPPA’s labs, refer to the Research Activities page.

Femtosecond Physics Laboratory

The Femtosecond Physics Laboratory houses a two-colour pump-probe spectroscopy setup, the key elements of which are;

Coherent Chameleon Ultra Ti:Sapphire laser

Wavelength range: 690 – 1040 nm

Pulse width: 140 fs

Peak power: > 250 kW

Repetition rate: 80 MHz

APE GmbH Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) PP Automatic

Wavelength range: Signal: 1100 – 1600 nm

Idler: 1700 – 3100 nm

Pulse width: ~300 fs (at 1300 nm) with a FWHM of 20 nm

Average power: 100 mW

Cavity round trip time: 76 MHz

Electrophysics Corp. MicronViewer 7290 Infrared Camera

Spectral response: 400 – 1900 nm

Sensor: 1 inch Vidicon

Resolution: up to 700 TV lines

Other equipment available includes;

Stanford Research SR844 200 MHz RF Lock-In Amplifier

Stanford Research SR850 100 kHz DSP Lock-In Amplifier

Ando AQ6317C Optical Spectrum Analyser

APE GmbH PulseCheck Autocorrelator

ILX Lightwave LDX-3620 Ultra Low-Noise Current Source

Acousto Optic Modulators (AOMs)

Laser Dynamics Laboratory

The Laser Dynamics Laboratory focuses on the study of non-linear dynamical processes in semiconductor lasers. Equipment available for this includes;

Frequency Resolved Electro-Absorption Gating (FREAG) Pulse Analyser

Southern Photonics EG130

Real-time pulse shape and phase recovery

Input wavelength: Customised for 1300 nm

Temporal resolution: 300 fs

Spectral resolution: 2.5 GHz min.

Spectral width: 10 nm max.

Agilent DSO91204A Infiniium Oscilloscope

Max sampling rate: 40 GS/s on all 4 channels

12 GHz analog bandwidth

150,000 measurements per second

Lightwave Probe Station

Trinocular stereo microscope

1.4 Megapixel CCD camera

Precision translation stage

Laser diode controller

Other equipment available includes;

20 GS/s LeCroy 6 GHz Real-Time Oscilloscope

Rohde & Schwarz 60 GHz Signal Generator

Avtech 50 V Pulse Generator

Tunable Lasers : 1275 – 1360 nm, 1520 – 1570nm, 1475 – 1625 nm

Newport 25 ps, 700 – 1650 nm Detectors

Textronix Communications Signal Analyser

Advantest Electronic Spectrum Analyser

Photoluminescence Spectroscopy Laboratory

The Photoluminescence Spectroscopy Laboratory is dedicated to the study of bandstructure and transitions in semiconductor systems. Key experimental setups available for this are;

Time-Resolved Photoluminescence (TRPL)

Hamamatsu C5680 Series Universal Streak Camera

Coherent Mira Ti:Sapphire laser (800-910 nm & frequency doubled)

PicoQuant Picosecond Lasers (650nm, 780nm, 830nm, 980nm)

Dual-Stage Liquid Helium Crystat (4 K)

TE cooled photocathode, 300 – 1600 nm detection range

Up to 2 ps resolution

High excitation power densities (15 kW/cm2)

4 K – 350 K temperature range

Ultra-high sensitivity – single photon detection

Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy

Bruker Vertex 80v FTIR Spectrometer

Si bolometer for THz detection

Continuous flow He cryostat (7 K)

Visible to THz wavelength range

Spectral resolution better than 0.2 cm-1

Step-scan capability

See Also:

This section describe the facilities which are most focused on academic research. For additional equipment in CAPPA, which is mostly utilised for industry-related research, please see the Research for Industry section. These additional facilities include an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope, and FTIR and Raman imaging equipment.